Businessman Wants Shrimp Farm in Wellington

by
Ellen Hardy

26 November 2007, at 12:00am

NEW ZEALAND - A Fort Collins businessman who has been trying to build shrimp farms in northern Colorado for nearly a decade hopes to have one fully operational in Wellington within two years, the Greeley Tribune reported in Saturday editions.

Jim Keeton, founder of the aquaculture company Keeton Industries Inc., is still trying to secure building permits.

The farm would be the only shrimp farm in Colorado and would likely employ 200 people.

Keeton has been in the aquaculture business for 34 years and has helped start shrimp and fish farms in places like Montana, Ecuador and Brazil.

Trident-Aqua-Technology Ventures Inc., which markets and sells Keeton's technology, says that when up and running, plants can create more than 6 million pounds of Pacific white shrimp annually, or about 115,000 pounds of shrimp per week.

Keeton said he hopes to "farm" 5 million pounds of shrimp during a pilot project that he hopes to have going by spring.